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• Digital Citizenship
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Digital Citizenship: Grades 6-8

Using Real-Time Data

Download Student Activity Sheet(s) in PDF format.

Read a Letter to Educators about digital citizenship from CyberSmart!

Overview

Students use a guide to locate quantitative and qualitative real-time data on the Internet, develop essential questions, plan collaboration, identify an audience, and decide how to communicate the results of their investigation.

Objectives

• Locate online and describe various forms of real-time data.
• Craft essential questions related to real-time data.
• Plan how to collaborate with other students and communicate their results.

National Educational Technology Standards for Students © 2007

Source: International Society for Technology in Education

2. Communication and Collaboration
   4. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.
3. Research and Information Fluency
   1. plan strategies to guide inquiry.
   2. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
   3. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
   4. process data and report results.
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
   1. identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation.
   2. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.
   3. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.

Advance Preparation

Develop a pacing plan for a task involving real-time data that will allow students enough time to locate and explore the data, collect the data over time, and analyze and report results to audiences inside and outside the classroom. If the use of essential questions is new to your students, consider preparing additional examples for discussion.

Site Preview

Preview the following Web sites, which are suggested to illustrate the meaning of real-time data and as possible starting points for inquiry-based investigations.

• Solar and Heliospheric Observatory: SOHO Real Time MPEG Movies
• Latest Earthquakes in the World - Past 7 days
• MODIS Rapid Response System: Image Gallery
• San Diego Real Time Traffic
• Weather Conditions at the National Wind Technology Center
• National Geographic WildCam Africa

Optional strategies for using Web 2.0 tools with your students are recommended throughout this lesson plan.

Materials

• Student Sheets (one set of 2)

Introduce (offline)

• Explain to students that data is factual information that is measured or observed and gathered in one place (for example, in a graph or video). Have students suggest examples of the many forms of data that surround them in every aspect of modern life. Point out that data does not have to be boring — there is plenty of data about real-world problems and issues that are very interesting.

Teach 1 (online)

• Group students into project teams of two to three students.
• Distribute the student sheets and have students read the introduction.
• To check if students understand the concept of data, ask: What kinds of data are reported on a morning television or radio news show? (air temperature, precipitation, wind speed, traffic conditions, the time, and so on)
• For Find Real-Time Data, have students to go online to www.becybersmart.org or www.cybersmartcurriculum.org, click on STUDENT LINKS, and then click on the diamond. Then have them find the title of this lesson and open one or more links. (Note: There are many other sources of real-time data online, but some of them will be difficult for middle school students to read and interpret.)

If you have your students research other sources of real-time data, you may want to have them use social bookmarking and other Web 2.0 tools, to facilitate sharing of Web resources.

Teach 2 (offline)

• Before they write essential questions, have students do some brainstorming and discuss their options. Point out that most data sources will suggest many, many questions.
• It may take some practice for students to develop strong essential questions. Have teams exchange their lists of questions and critique one another.

If your students are going to use one of their essential questions as the basis for an investigation, it may be helpful to set up a wiki or use other Web 2.0 tools, to facilitate online collaboration.

Teach 3 (offline)

• When students complete Plan Collaboration, you may wish to discuss some ground rules for student collaboration (for example, all members of the team should contribute to each step in the process).
• Authentic learning tasks are more powerful when students present their findings or decisions to people outside their school. They can share them with students around the world, the press, or adults whose work might be influenced by what your students have to share.
• Point out to students that the form of communication they choose should be suited to their intended audience. Take the opportunity to discuss how mobile phones, social networks, and real-time services such as Twitter might be used to send or receive real-time data. NOTE: Because many school districts block these kinds of Internet sites, your discussion might be hypothetical.

Have students use Web 2.0 Tools, such as the safe e-mail and blogging tools available from ePals, to communicate with students around the world and to publish the results of their project.

Assess

The following items assess student mastery of the lesson objectives.

• Ask: What kinds of online data are considered real-time? Answers will vary but may include weather radar maps, streaming news shows, earthquake data
• Ask: What did you think about when developing your essential question?
• Ask: What things do you have to consider when planning collaboration and communication?

Extend with Epals for Global Connections

Join a global collaborative project where you can find classrooms around the world interested in having students collaborate on authentic projects such as the ePals Digital Storytelling Classroom Project which references student-made digital stories from Cybersmart!'s Africa Digital Storytelling Project.

CyberSmart! Online Workshops

Find out about earning continuing education and graduate credits with facilitated CyberSmart! Online Workshops.

Free CyberSmart! Educator Toolbar

Save time. Search smart. Access essential information resources for educators. Download the free CyberSmart! Educator Toolbar. It's always on your desktop at home and/or at school.

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